When I spot Elder Betty amidst the people in front of the packhouse, talking to one of the male elders, I feel instantly relieved. A well-known, kind face.
“There they are.” Betty smiles at us when we exit the car and waves.
It gives me the push I need to walk towards her and the small group of elders around her. “Luna Rosea,” one of the men greetsme, shaking my hand. “I’m one of the five leaders of the elder’s council. My name is Albert.”
“It’s an honor to meet you, Elder Albert,” I say.
He greets Forest and Martin and introduces the other elders with him, and exchanges pleasantries with all of us. Then his face turns serious. “I understand you must have a well-founded suspicion against any elders. We have heard your history, and what the elders in this very pack did.”
I turn to Betty. “Thank you for already explaining everything.”
“Oh, it wasn’t me,” Betty says. “I wanted to, but Elder Albert already knew. One of the elders of this pack told him.”
I’m shocked to say the least. “What?”
“He approached us two weeks ago,” Elder Albert explains. “And laid out to us what transpired here.”
“It was Arthur, wasn’t it?” When the others look at me in surprise, I just shrug. “It was easy to guess. I wouldn’t call him a decent person, simply because I don’t know him, but at least he looked uncomfortable and as if he disagreed with what Jordan did. What about…” my voice trails off.
“Frank has been removed,” Betty tells me, as if she just read my mind.
“He was stripped of his status and imprisoned,” Albert adds. “We’ll further research how he got in touch with a potion that could break your mate bond. He shouldn’t have access to any of that.”
“I’ll leave that to you,” I say. “I’ll be glad to never see him again.” I pause, turning around to look at the packhouse and the houses close to it. Pack members have been approaching without me noticing them. I expected to feel sad, anxious or even angry, but I feel nothing. And that’s a much scarier thing.
This place makes me feel numb.
The people here make me feel numb.
The packhouse makes me feel numb.
“I’m honestly just here to retrieve some of my belongings,” I finally say. “If you are here to deal with the whole fallout, I’ll happily leave it to you.”
Albert nods tentatively. “It’s your pack, Luna Rose. It belonged to your father, and you were his successor. You are the pack’s luna.”
I shake my head. “I am the Young pack’s luna,” I say. “My commitment lies there. I just want my possessions and my money back, and there are a very few pack members I would like to check on.”
“I thought you would say that,” Albert says. “I still wanted to offer it to you.”
“What are we going to do with the pack now?” asks one of the other elders. “With everything that’s gone down here, it’s not high on the list of other alphas either. Usually, we would offer it to a promising alpha’s child, who is not a direct successor. But most decent alphas won’t want to send any of their kids to take over this place.”
“The former beta is out of question, too,” Betty adds. “What you just said is true. This is a rathole. Whoever takes over would need to check every single pack member to see who is trustworthy or not.”
“Why don’t you take it?” I ask.
The group looks at me, surprised. “Excuse me?” Albert asks.
“I don’t know how the fortress, or the area around it, is organized in detail, but isn’t it slowly getting too small? Don’t you need more space? You could either build a second dungeon here or turn it into a branch of it, just for bureaucracy, say.”
“We were talking about needing a branch which focused solely on investigations,” Albert admits. “Especially with what’s been happening.”
“Fantastic,” I say. “Wouldn’t that solve all of our issues? You get enough space, and I get the pack off my hands.”
“I actually like the idea,” Forest admits.
“What about the pack members?” Betty asks.
“Well, either they were accomplices of Jordan, and they’ll await trial,” Albert says.
